For over a century, the Carnegie Unit \u2014 better known as the credit hour \u2014 has shaped nearly every aspect of American education: from class schedules to graduation requirements and even financial aid. But this formula, defined as 120 hours of contact time with an instructor, is now facing growing criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even the Carnegie Foundation, the very organization that created it, is calling for change. At a recent American Community Media Sparking Equity Podcast event, educators and experts spotlighted alternative models that are already showing success \u2014 and called for a shift toward a more flexible, student-centered system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even though absenteeism can be caused by many factors, the way in which the Carnegie Unit has shaped the school day overlooks a crucial reality: students learn at different rates. \u201cThe notion that we should kind of shoehorn, squeeze learning into these hourly bites doesn’t really work for all kids,\u201d says Freedberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Critical thinking, teamwork, resilience, and independence are more important than high school grades when it comes to succeeding in the workplace. \u201cI call these durable skills. These are skills you want students to have throughout their life,\u201d reflects Freedberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPart of my goal is to normalize joy in schools because it is a quick, sure way to engage students in the work. It\u2019s about being connected to their passions,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her work at MetWest focuses on inspiring youth to become not only dream chasers, but dream catchers. And in order to catch those dreams, it\u2019s necessary to put action behind them. \u201cSo one thing that we do is have every ninth grader create an individual learning plan in which they set goals. We talk specifically not only about the things they dream of, such as careers or education beyond high school, While all high schools in Oakland Unified must have pathways (on average, between three to five different pathways), at MetWest High School, students are able to experience 19 to 20 different ones. This is not only due to the personalized learning design, but also because of MetWest’s ability to offer internships that align with each student\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, if a student is really passionate about being an architect, we would help them find an internship with an architect, an architecture firm, or anyone in that industry,\u201d Gregory points out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this way, in addition to receiving core instruction (such as English, math, or science) on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, MetWest students are out having authentic, work-based learning experiences every Tuesday and Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo they\u2019re graduating not only with a high school diploma, and potentially an associate\u2019s degree, but they\u2019re also leaving with what we call life skills as well as career-ready skills,\u201d Gregory says proudly. In fact, one of her students will graduate with a guaranteed job, she affirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe realized that the work to try to get to the end required that it wasn’t just one teacher doing this. There had to be a whole community involved,\u201d says Anne Stanton, president of the Linked Learning Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Active community participation is key to ensuring a whole-child approach. \u201cCounseling supports are very much part of building that family environment and that sense of support for young people,\u201d Stanton affirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd more importantly, we need to bring the business community into that \u2014 to make sure that young people have opportunities to experience what they\u2019re learning academically in the classroom and how they can apply it in the real world,\u201d she emphasizes. To do that, we need to rethink the walls of schools: to let the community in, and also let students out into the world. \u201cYoung people at this stage of life are the most creative, their brains are still developing. They can contribute in so many ways. And in our country, we think far less of what a 16-year-old can do than people do in other countries,\u201d Stanton concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For over a century, the Carnegie Unit \u2014 better known as the credit hour \u2014 has shaped nearly every aspect of American education: from class schedules to graduation requirements and even financial aid. But this formula, defined as 120 hours of contact time with an instructor, is now facing growing criticism. Even the Carnegie Foundation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[686],"tags":[765,196,762,764,763],"class_list":["post-801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-community-media","tag-americaneducation","tag-california","tag-classroom","tag-skills","tag-students"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":805,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801\/revisions\/805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lavoz.us.com\/homepage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The Carnegie Unit\u2019s Failure to Measure Durable Skills<\/strong>
Despite the initial excitement about returning to school after the pandemic, chronic absenteeism rates have reached record levels. \u201cThe current structure and learning opportunities that we are offering students are not working sufficiently for young people to get up every morning and go to school,\u201d explains Louis Freedberg, Director of the Advancing Education Success Initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, there are innovative pilot projects aiming to measure durable skills in states like Indiana, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Despite the growing interest in rethinking the way we structure the school day, these efforts remain state-based initiatives. According to Freedberg, \u201cThe Department of Education has been more or less missing in action. This is not something that’s coming from the federal government,\u201d he points out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Metwest high school: a success story of learning beyond the classroom<\/strong>
Shalonda Gregory, principal of MetWest High School in Oakland, says that the main reason she became involved in education was the joy she experienced during her time in what she calls a \u201ctraditional school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
but also about who the person is that they want to become,\u201d the principal mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But school efforts alone aren\u2019t enough – the community is essential<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
That means assessing not only academic success, but also the competencies students develop through hands-on opportunities and work-based learning \u2014 what we call durable skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n